Essay
coastal flooding and storm surges essay
- Institution
- AQA
these notes have all been produces for the new set of exam series beginning in the summer of 2018 and are based on the Edexcel exam board.
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Assess the impacts of coastal foooiin aio storm surnes nlobally (16)The increased threat of global warming and the issue of rising sea levels has become a more
prominent concern over recent years due to the efects becoming more pronounced.
Coastal areas are partcularly sufering from the efects of global warming with increased
rates of erosion and sea levels rising dramatcally to the extent of submerging areas leaving
them abandoned by residents. Consequently, places like Holderness have sufered from
land reducton, forcing homes over the clif face due to erosion. In Holderness, a house
which is 20m from the clif edge will be lost to the sea in a few years tme. For the residents
this means that property value falls as erosion brings the coastline closer, an inability to sell
their property because of the risk of erosion and the loss of their major asset and the cost of
getting a new home. This puts pressure on the residents with no choice and having to
relocate with no aid from insurance companies who refuse to cover the costs. Therefore,
residents are forced to leave the area in order to fnd a safer environment to live taking with
them their contributon to the local businesses who also then sufer from the loss. Not only
do the businesses sufer due to residents leaving but tourism is also put under threat as
young people are no longer choosing to live in places like Holderness due to the lack of
employment and high level educaton leaving the ageing populaton with the issue of an old
traditonal town slowly being eroded. Meaning, a lack of fresh ideas from younger
generatons on regeneraton schemes for the area driving away the tourists to more
attractve places. Duue to the lack of interest from the tourists the government do not see
the area as of high importance to invest in the issue of erosion, causing it to only get worse.
Furthermore, storm surges are also a huge threat to communites leaving them with far more
immediate issues to deal with; usually leading to larger investments as an attempt to prevent the
event from occurring again. For example, as a result of a huge storm surge in 1953, the Duutch began
their mega project which was one of the largest coastal engineering projects on the planet named
‘The Dueltawerken’. This project cost over US$1billion and technically difcult, usually being a long-
term project. Many megaprojects have multple aims that of the Dueltawerken being to reduce the
risk of fooding in low lying areas, shorten the length of the coastline exposed to the sea by 700km,
control the fow of the Rhine, Maas and Scheldt rivers to reduce food risk and to maintain safe
access to the North sea for shipping from important Duutch ports such as Rotterdam. The project
therefore aimed to protect the area from the food risks and rising sea levels avoiding any damage to
the tourism and businesses in the area meaning there were no long term negatve economic or
social impacts. The project also provided a long term soluton to the efects of global warming that
areas like Holderness could not aford and didn’t have the initatve to introduce.
Rising sea levels are not just an issue for places in the UK, for instance, Tuvalu is a collecton
of islands in the Pacifc cean with its highest point only 4.5m above sea level and most land
around 1-2m above sea level. As global sea levels rise, the island is predicted to sink further
underneath the water. It is surrounded by coral reefs which are a brilliant natural coastal
defence. However these reefs risk destructon due to rising ocean temperatures, making the
islands more vulnerable to submergence. Water is limited and salt water is making farming
very difcult. The economy is based on tourism and fshing, both of which are under threat
and it is said that many people will become environmental refugees; people may have to
abandon the islands if the rising sea levels make them uninhabitable. Which is not a positve
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